Conclusion

Abstract

To the degree that this book’s analysis of Japan’s economic phenomena and the basic view of the Japanese economy as a whole is correct, the conventional view of Japan and the basic doctrine underlying this view require correction. As matters stand, this conventional view forms and defines the common grounds for both academic research and policy debate, pulling them in the wrong direction and producing a pattern of results in the absence of an accurate understanding of economic phenomena and policy coherence. This situation is not inevitable; it flows from a small number of intellectual errors that can be corrected. The only cure for a bad theory is better theory.